
y.iL_yV-. 



. . or MEMKON 




URRAK 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap Oopy/ilht No 

fS-?^ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON 



IN VALES OF HELIKON 

POEMS BY * * * * 
ALFRED ANTOINE FURMAN 




NEW YORK 

WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD CO. 

441 TO 447 PEARL STREET 

1899 



T^VC COPIES HECEIVSD, 

D€0 2 91899 

Register of Copyrlght^;^ 



T^3^ 






49855 

Copyright 1899 

BY 

ALFRED ANTOINE FURMAN 



SECOND COPY, 






TO GEORGE THEODORE WELCH. 



K I? 



If we have borne the storm and stress of fate, 
If we have seen our pristine sentiments 
Droop in the air of action, time relents. 
And brings a recompense to mitigate 

His all too harsh decrees. That great estate 
Our deputy in purple represents. 
Unseen before the shepherds' wandering tents, 
Looms in the mind by thought made desolate. 

Here, in your conscript hours, forms you conjure 
Love-lorn or fair, out of the mental urn. 
That put on flesh and live; — an overture 

To feasts of fancy; memories strange to burn 
Into the brain. You, by this wand, allure 
Heart-easing days; and I, perchance, may learn. 



•t H 



CONTENTS* 

•( m 

In Vales of Helikon 13 

Morning 31 

The Lost Arcadia 32 

Chatterton 33 

A Bank of Violets 34 

Bereavement 35 

Otho 36 

The Tables Turned 41 

Robespierre 42 

Belisarius 43 

The Sea Gull 44 

A Citizen of the World 46 

The March Woods 48 

Karnak 50 

The Young Magician 52 

The Great Leveller 53 



10 CONTENTS. 

The Suicide 54 

Claudian 55 

The Locomotive 5^ 

A Red Chieftain 5^ 

The Home of God 62 

The Majesty of Death 63 

The Released Convict 64 

April 66 

The Dawn Maiden 67 

A Sunset on the Sea 68 

The Chaldean Plains 69 

The Eagle 70 

The Old Year 72 

Lorella 73 

The Fields of Asphodel 74 

Ariadne 76 

The Burning Throne 7^ 

August 79 

Andronikus 80 

Britomarte 82 

The Cave Dwellers 84 

The Dorian Line 85 

Cuba 86 

A Slave of Pleasure 88 



CONTENTS. 11 

Washington 90 

The Sea of Darkness 91 

Armenia 92 

Olympian Days 94 

The Soldier's Grave 96 

Saint Bernard 98 

Law 100 

Spain loi 

The Melouna Pass 102 

The Abdication 104 

Consolation 105 

A Thrall of Vice 106 

Macbeth 108 

Orestes no 

The Aonian Mount in 

To the Cuban Reconcentrados 112 

To the Maine 114 

Manila 115 

Santiago 116 

War 117 

The Dead Warrior 118 

The Last Leaf 120 

Night 121 



IN VALES OF HELIKON* 

/ 

I left my master Plato, and pursued 
A solitary way. That liquid voice 
Resounded in mine ears, as, far and wide, 
I followed after those supernal forms 
Which leaving, at his word, their native spheres, 
Came to the earth, obeying. But, alone, 
The inefifable spirits glided from my side. 
Bearing the lamp of truth, by whose pale rays 
He read the secrets of the universe. 

Then all uncertain did I stay my foot, 
Longing to follow, yet withheld by awe. 
The while, at tension, marble to the core. 
So still I stood, I heard the soft refrain 
Of many a broken song, and caught the tones 
Of the immortals in their mansions blest; 



14 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Thro which, methought, came glimpses of old days, 
Processions stately, hallowed forms, and gods; 
Graces and nymphs melodious — the muse 
Majestic, but divinely sweet and rare. 
Then all would vanish, echo die away 
Into her shell; and the faint roar of men 
Ravening at toil, with multitudinous cries, 
Behind me deepening, seeming like the damned 
Their throats in Hades straining, — smote my soul, 
And stung me forward from ignoble days. 
My robes I plucked about me: from the rim 
That shuts the modern, like a prison wall; 
From all his ramp and worry, and the coil 
Of base ambitions ending in a round, — 
I stepped at once into the antique world; 
A mystic, rapt in deep romantic themes; 
A wanderer over every land and sea. 

Arose before me mountains capped with snow. 
Red with the footsteps of the sun. Beyond, 
A valley clothed in twilight vaguely ran. 
Joyful, I entered. On a gentle mound 
With verdure carpeted, and from the day 
Guarded by leafy boughs, some columns leaned. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 15 

Euined and lone. Hard by an altar stood 

Mantled with vines, and with a truant ray, 

As if the incense of the primal time 

That felt and argued not, had been transmute, 

By nature's alchemy, in stainless wreath 

Of ever-during light, — an homage sad. 

To burn perennial there. Upon its side 

Lichens, air-fed, and mosses clad in green. 

Inched o'er the tawny marble, gaping wide. 

The porch of lizards slipping in and out. 

And colored like the stone. And as I paused 

To gaze in solemn silence on this scene 

Of mournful beauty, 'neath the dropping pines 

Appeared two forms. The elder one had scarce 

Voyaged on waves of time to our best age; 

His looks were grave as night, save when a flash. 

Swift as the levin's bolt, shot from his eyes, 

Like one in madness bound; which soon again 

Grew soft and lambent as the evening star. 

The other had not passed youth's golden gates; 

A cloud of auburn locks fell on his head 

In beautiful disorder; and a smile 

Pleasant, but leagued, in sooth, with mockery 

Lurked on his perfect lips. They, seeing me, ' 



16 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Stopped sudden. Back into the balsamy gloom 
Faded the first; while to that crumbling shrine 
Advanced the younger, bending on me looks 
Of keenest scrutiny. 

''Does poetry," he asked, 
And on the sanctuary laid an oHve spray, 
*' Still wander in the modern world, whose home 
Was in the age of fable and belief?" 

"Do we not love, do not the nations war?" 
I answered, flurried by his railing tone. 
"To grace these themes the muses bring to us 
Laurel and palm. Knew you the better times?" 

A shadow swept across his mobile face. 
Retreating on the borders of a smile 
Satiric, as in mellow voice he said: 

"Volterra saw my birth when slavery's storm 
Was beating on the land. The stoic tree 
Sheltered my life, while with a trammeled pen 
I lashed the follied age. That stream of verse 
Which flowed from Homer's well, was drying up; 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 17 

The night of tyranny closed on the world, 

Choking the low melodious voice of art. 

Do not believe the seeds of poesy 

Break thro the soul to uncongenial air: 

Shy are the muses, and they may not leave 

Their haunts on Helikon at every call. 

One poet in an age consoles my mind, 

For nature is not prodigal with genius. 

He is a legislator for the heart, 

The image of his time. Read me the verse 

Of any age, and I will copy you 

Its manners, dogmas, laws and government. 

Many there are who fancy they have wet 

Their lips in Castaly: they but reveal 

Some fleeting vanities that perish soon. 

My times were so infested, and I made 

My pen a thong of scorpions to chastise 

The desecrators of a holy shrine. 

Nor did I spare to ply my whip of scorn 

On him who filled the throne, who in the hours 

Borrowed from lust raised to the muse an eye. 

Light press the earth on them invective-stung: 

Death, early in a masterless disease, 

Their foolish rage avenges." 



18 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

He ended; I rejoined: 
''Persius, I know thee now as one whose heart 
Was kinder than his pen. I marvelled, too, 
What would have been thy noon of art whose dawn 
Poured such a piercing Hght. But may I hear 
That joyless one who venerates the shades?" 

Beneath a silver fir whose lateral boughs 
Dropped heavy shadows, pale, in sadness deep 
He stood; and on that face I questioned threw 
Mysterious glances. Turning to me then, 
Resumed melodious the satirist: 

''Thy cleric dress, he says, a serious mind 
Proclaims: so I may speak. The sisters three 
Who wear the chaplets made of wool, with flowers 
Of the Narcissus woven, and calmly keep 
The archives of eternity, both loved 
And hated him. When to the earth his soul 
Traveled, arising from their nighted thrones, 
They dipped it in the white and azure founts 
Of truth and fancy; but their fatal shears 
Cut soon his thread of life: by his own hand 
Hurried to Charon's stream. I had bewailed 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 19 

That wound, that eternal wound of love, 

At many a studious banquet when his lines 

Brilliant and deep, showed me the source of things, 

And from the form of dead religion tore 

Her splendid shroud. His reason doomed the soul 

To pass in nothingness; to sink at last 

In sea of matter, dragging to the ooze 

Of cold oblivion all its gorgeous train 

Of hate and passion, memory and hope. 

When wretched man has clung to life, and planned 

New troubles for himself beyond the skies, 

The gift of endless sleep declining, often 

He smiled, and wondered why. But his own soul 

Had grown so rich and powerful by thought, 

It might not drop in dissolution's jaws, 

As others do; but ever wings its way, 

Thro world on world, up to the seat of light." 

When ceased the accents of that flagrant sadness, 

From vortex of my new emotions, I 

Rescued these words: ''Lucretius is his name. 

Who gave to nature, thro his postulate 

Eternal atoms and the boundless void, 

All power to carry out her ends. And nature wroth 



20 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

His footfall sounded in her mystic halls, 
And fearing that more secrets he betray, 
Pressed him yet young against her marble breast/* 

Now parted us his voice within the wood, 

Late found: "Thy vase of goodness overflows!" 

That turned the gracious figure from my side 

To his transcendent comrade in the glade. 

I bent some lingering looks upon that table 

Where still I saw the pile of votive wealth 

Rise thro the clouds of incense; the Pythian heard 

Pronounce, with sparkling eyes and hair on end, 

In sulphur vapors, oracles divine. 

Then as the sun between the olives shot 

Vollies of crimson arrows, went my way. 

There is an empery in solitude 
The Roman never swayed. Assemble here 
Demons or gods to scourge or elevate, 
Depending on our lives. The jaded soul 
Grown weary in the conflict with the world, 
Stoops to this well, and rises up refreshed. 
The guilty mind must murder memory. 
Or ever be pursued by furies here. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 21 

Bear to this hospital thy wounded pride, 

And here thy hurt will find a medicine. 

When drops of loss fall in thy cup of life, 

And bitter it, enter this holy land. 

And comfort visits thee. Yet solitude, 

That flight of the alone to the alone. 

To them w^hose moods are docile to its sway. 

Is like a haunt where congregate the best 

Of all the ages; in the printed page 

Living, tho dead, and feeding with their thoughts 

The flame of art and knowledge on the earth. 



I traveled on, elate. Before the fervors 
That sparkled in the diamond of my youth. 
By lapidary time were blurred and dimmed. 
And graved with tears, these Pierian paths I trod; 
But still they seemed untrod. At times I drew 
Forth from my vest, with many a furtive glance. 
An humble flute, and wound a plaintive strain 
That vanity would whisper was a note 
Such as the rightful dwellers in the vales 
Parnassan soothed their hearts withal, when they 
Heard from the summit faultless melodies. 



22 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

By ilex and by pine, by silvery spring- 
That kissed with sweet, moist lips their rugged feet, 
Thro rocky dells where lived all shrubs and plants 
Innocuous, and where the tranquil light 
Broidered with shade, hung like a cloth of gold 
On this cathedral's walls, long wandering, lost 
In deep delight, I came in turn to each 
Famed tenant of this soil. There was a rill 
That glided from a canopy of rock. 
Its crystal tresses braiding, where I saw 
One sitting on a stony couch festooned 
With myrtle and with bays. Traversed his brow 
The white lane of a scar; and at his feet 
Lay symbols of his art. An ominous gaze 
And friendly, but in sudden moments chased 
By sorrow's wolves, emboldened me to say: 

**The tragic muse who fled at my approach 
But secret favors you, dropped in her haste 
Dagger and crown; yet she has left, I think, 
A votary — " 

A melancholy smile 
Loitered a moment on his countenance, 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 23 

Such as the sun at close of wintry days, 
Foundered in vermeil clouds, throws on the skies. 

"I was a pioneer," he said in tones 

Calmly defying grief. " I blazed a path 

For the romantic drama thro the growth, 

Noxious and rank, of medieval art. 

I gave it form, and showed men as they are, 

Cruel, ambitious, false, the winding-sheet 

Of their humanities. Came to my hearth 

A sovereign mind, and snatched from it a brand 

To light the temple of his genius. I — 

That lake of blood again! I see it still, 

Dark, turbid, weltering, fed by springs of hate: 

Its thick weaves leap up to my mouth, and choke me. 

'Tis nothing; let it pass! — My days, my nights 

Knew well the haunts of vice; and dear I paid 

For dragging in that mire the beauteous robes 

Of my invention. By a wretched hand. 

Before my fruit of fancy was a-ripe. 

While in my brain rolled sunless seas of thought, 

To fall on undreamed shores, and flash in verse, — 

Was I laid low; my bill of life 

By death receipted early." 



24 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

I bowed my head, 
Feeling grope in my breast the infinite pain 
He could but half conceal, and low responded: 

"Marlowe, 
Your mighty line with wonder filled my mind 
Whene'er I studied in that golden age 
Whereof you were the herald; that rare time 
Seen only twice before in this our world, 
Which like an aloe blossomed but to die." 

Now at this moment passed a pensive shade. 
Paused, and returned to where that fountain gleamed 
With weird and obscure light. Of middle size 
Whose portliness made tryst with ease and grace; 
An eye large, deep and luminous; a face 
By misery pinched; and lips where hung a foam 
His rounded chin distorting, — such was he. 
Still young, but withered in misfortune's storms. 
Flowed in full tide my curiosity, 
And bade me question him. A dismal look 
Was only thrown my words; then he resumed 
His walk, and in the dimness disappeared. 
Chagrin was on my features stamped; and I 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 25 

Fain would have asked that other to appease 
This hunger when I saw he, too, was gone. 

I gazed around. Thro vistas shone the peaks 
With snow tiaraed, — types of loneliness 
In which the greatest dwell. These steeps of fame 
Are chilling even when the world's applause 
Comes up their sides resounding. Poisoned darts 
Fly from an unseen cloud, and rankle there. 
Frequent the singing robes are wet with tears. 
In vain against the depressing bars of flesh 
Beat the spirit's wings. Not till the eternal calm 
From urn immutable, beyond the realm 
Of change, beyond the scepter of decay 
Which governs all in this our mortal state, — 
Over the soul is flowing, is there peace. 

As I fared on and upward, I perceived 

A chasm, the mountain's jaws held wide apart 

By viewless monsters, down which tripped and plunged 

A limpid brook fed by the exhaustless snows. 

Where jutted a peninsula of green 

In that aerial bay, two forms uprose; 

And drawing near, one I discerned was he 



26 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Some ani^cr, to my j^rief, had driven away. 
There on the lcdi;e, he wiped his frothy hps 
With amaranth dip])e(l in the icy pool; 
Bnt ever leai)ed the white inmiortal spray 
On that red l)ank. His tntelar, dee]) in ai^e, 
With locks blown white and tliin by winds of time, 
Skin creased and i)arched as some old document, 
From bendini^- over him, tnrned and exclaimed: 

''Why, mortal, do yon come to harass him 

With vain entpiiries, hatinii;- as he does 

All yonr delusions? Listen, rmd depart! 

He was condemned by natm^e to that life 

Illusion-starred, wherein a mockin^^ fate 

Fixes a ^ulf between our h()])cs and lot 

Wide as the i^rave. r»etter that he had been 

A stabler, scullion, plowman, what you will, 

Since these vocations brini;-, at any rate. 

Bread, and a ])lace at nii;ht to lay the head. 

Then had he dwarfed and jailed his i^enerous nature, 

The mark of artist souls; closed friendship's i)urse; 

And trained his character in worldly ways! 

And so had found before the bar of time 

Uedress, and judi^nient ta'en for future ])eace 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 27 

Against the league of chance. But such a life, 
So deadly to the flowers of Otway's mind, 
Was happily short — his only fortune there. 
A gorgon breathed into his fiery veins, 
As fatal as the serpent-circled head 
Which, in the fabling days. 
Turned into stone all those who on it gazed. 
What do I say? It was starvation grim 
That planted in his blood her hideous flag, 
And recompensed his services to art." 

His words at first pitched in a shrilly key. 
Closed tremulous and slow, as when the winds 
Battling all night with bands of centuried oaks, 
Their warfare cease when dawn sedately leads 
Her pageant up the east, and sink to rest. 
I heard in silence, and in silence turned, 
Departing. I had left the cheerful vales 
Rapt and absorbed, and uplands trod of song, 
By aspiration called and beckoned on 
To airs beyond my breathing. As I stood 
In doubtful musing, softly down the slope 
Stole warbled notes in one clear strain to me. 
In purest outline there the regal skies 



28 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Those hoary heights were shaping. Graceful rose, 
Below the desolate ivory fields which frost 
Sows on the summit, columns white as they, 
Supporting a pavilion where the forms 
Of airy creatures moved in mystic dance. 
Ethereal, radiant and music-veiled. 



SONG. 

He leads no more the choric dance 

Upon Parnassus side; 
No more our woven footsteps glance, 

In harmony and pride, 
To that sweet lyre which he of yore 
From the celestial mountains bore. 

Tho years have past away 

Since we did part, 
Faithful to thee I stay, 

Friend of my heart. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 29 

And now but burns a feeble flame 

Caught from his glorious fire, 
Which may, in age of lower aim. 

Recall the matchless choir 
That brought below the heavenly lore 
Men may admire but not restore. 

Tho fate may never give 
Thy dear control, 
. Ever for thee I live, 
Friend of my soul! 



Came eve demure, and shut with dewy hands 
The gates of day. Night followed at her heels. 
Her swarthy children on her back. The stars, 
Studding her purple baldric with their gems. 
Dropped radiance down. I drank that lower air, 
Not moulded to ascend the difficult ground 
Where genius held her court. A simple song, 
A vagrant verse accost on fancy's road, 
Is all I know, and all I wish to know. 
Beneath those doddered trees, a musing mood 
Revealed the world of feeling which must make 



30 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Peace with that other world, since I have given 
These strange iambics greeting. They have drawn 
From serpent of my Hfe its poisonous fangs; 
And in the close and dungeon of the world 
Companions been to me. Perchance they led 
Friends to my side, in mirror of whose verse 
I saw the forms of beauty, prized the thought 
Whose plummet sounded in our human deeps, 
With highest art contending. And if age 
Shall drive into his fold my flock of years, 
I deem this well, altho to others naught. 
Or past observing, will refresh my days 
With waters ever sweet; and spread the sward 
And palms of bright imagination far 
Amid the sands of this material time. 



•? •? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 31 

MORNING- 

I saw the graceful figure of the morn 

Come thro her amber gate; 
And pausing timid on the airy lawn, 

The golden car await. 

Around, the dewy fragrance of the earth 

My spirit bathed in joy, 
As if I had received the purer birth 

That time can not destroy. 

From morning's smile and fair ambrosial hand 

My nature drank new power; 
Like Antaeus when he touched the strengthening 
land, 

And knew his conquering hour. 

O sacred morn! upon the mountain's brow 

Pouring thine urn of light. 
How beauteous art thou in my memory now 

Beneath a starless night! 



32 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE LOST ARCADIA. 

The notes of Pan come floating down the hill 
In silver melodies. Beside a tree 
A dryad bends, and listens rapturously; 
And where an oread stoops to sip a rill 

That Alpheus feeds, those notes her bosom thrill. 
Thro halls of perfume sings the pollened bee; 
Down in the fragrant meadows lazily 
The sacred sheep and oxen take their fill. 

O days of youth that time has ravined down! 
O fond illusions that persuaded still 
Life is a pleasant business, not an ill! 

To stricter school we go; beneath the frown 
Of science sit, constraining to depart 
Fancies that once beguiled the mind and heart. 



•s »? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



CHATTERTON. 

The fatal wreath of genius was entwined 

Around thy brain. It drove thee forth to seek 
A fame and fortune on the rough and bleak 
Mountains of life, pursuing forms that wind 

From haunts of fancy to the ardent mind; 

While on the antique muse thy heart did wreak 
Itself absorbing, like the vulture's beak 
Deep in the Titan's breast — of course to find 

No recompense on earth. Starvation crept 

With eyeless hate in chambers of thy blood; 
And pride w ent hand in hand to nip the bud 

Of charity, ere love thy lot had wept; 

Or from thy lip the poison wiped away 
That curtained up at morn thy radiant day. 



^ ^ 



34 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



A BANK OF VIOLETS. 
i? I? 

I found you o'er the brooklet peeping 

Demure in purple vest, 
While yet your laggard peers were sleeping 

Calmly in nature's breast. 

As soon as spring, from winter fleeing, 

Had passed across the land, 
You shyly came, scant welcome seeing, 

A gentle, lovely band. 

And fancied I the sky was lending 

A fragment of its blue. 
As o'er your bed of moisture bending 

Such beauty met my view. 



n ^ 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 35 



BEREAVEMENT* 

Its shadow falls across my heart 

Whatever way I go, — 
In silent study, noisy mart, 

Or where still waters flow. 

Aye rises from the grassy mound 
The form I loved so well; 

And comes, whatever scenes surround, 
Within my soul to dwell. 

I never ask that time may cure 
This wound, or bring relief: 

I wish to keep that memory pure 
In deep eternal grief. 



36 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



OTHO- 
I? n 

Martial I think of him 

As minister to every vice. 

Statius. So to the world he seemed, 

But thro his mind a vein of greatness ran. 

Martial, Truly he was a son 

Of these degenerate days. For Nero's sake 
He pawned his ancient name to infamy. 
Galba had favored him; and even now 
To sup with father Dis has Galba gone. 

Statius. How could he always hear 

The voice of virtue on his sworded throne! 
He was a man as various as the world, 
Versed in all ways, stoic and lover too. 
The Gracchi's spirit lived again in him 
Who threw away his empire and his life, 
To give the nation peace. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 37 

Martial. He cast a wondrous spell on you! 

Statins. He was that rarest bird — a friend; 

And tho I blame the conduct of his youth, 
His end was noble in mine eyes. 

Martial. Rumors we heard of that, 

Ascribed to his despair. 

Statins. He sought to keep his mind 

Above his fortunes. All that day he sat 
Nervous and taciturn within the gates. 
As evening fell, and shafts of crimson light 
Transfixed the somber pines, and trembling hung 
On Adda's chilly stream, he could no more 
Abide the dread suspense. Then sharply rose 
Cries on the air, and tramp of hurrying feet. 
He passed without. Enveloped in white dust, 
A crowd of fugitives poured in the town; 
Wounded and faint, and on their ashen cheeks 
Fear sitting; dying, yet their zeal for him 
Deathless. Cold was his glance; and on his face 
Grief for their flight. 
The legionaries groveled at his feet; 
They kissed his hands; called him their Imperator, 
Alone worthy to reign; and begged him not 
Forsake them now. 



38 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Martial. This am I glad to hear, 

And pay to it the tribute of a tear: 
Him had I buried in unhallowed sod, 
But now I praise him as a god. 

Statins. Well, dip this blossom of the heart 

In wine of epigram. Yet hark the rest; 
And it may from your stilus wipe 
Its crust of raillery. 

So was he loved, one plunged in his own side 
The fatal steel; and sprinkled Otho's hand 
With his heart's dew. A momentary glow 
Flashed in the Emperor's breast. Then he whose life 
Had often wandered in the paths of shame, 
Earning the anger of the sun-housed gods, 
And hate of pious men, a counsel plucked 
From the deep bosom of nobility. 
He gazed around, and said in voice unshaken: 
"To thrust into the jaws of war again 
A spirit such as yours, puts on my life 
Too high a price. The more you flush with hope 
The future years, if I should choose to live, 
More glorious still will be my death. For now 
Fortune and I each other truly know. 
If I threw off the yoke of moderation, 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Call it the curse of quick prosperity. 
Vitellius began the civil war: 
To bandage up with peace our country's wounds, 
Belongs to me. And do not think I need 
Revenge or consolation. Longer time 
Others have sat upon the blood-stained throne; 
But none has laid, with fortitude like mine, 
The scepter down. To Pluto's sunless halls 
Travels with me this thought, that you would die 
For Otho willingly. I counsel you: 
Bear with the world, and drain your glass of life. 
To say too much about one's end I hold 
A mark of cowardice. Take as a proof 
Of my resolve, that I complain of none: 
Accusing gods or men is but for him 
Afraid to die." 

Martial, Those sentiments 

I have not read in Epikurus' creed. 

Statius. His words, in their charmed minds, 
Dilated him to stature of the gods. 
His person, unacquainted with a grace, 
Vied with Apollo when he drives his steeds 
Thro gates of orient pearl. They turned away, 
Laden with sorrow. Otho, firm, serene, 



40 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Who could command the arms of twenty legions, 

But bowing proudly to the will of fate, 

Drowned silently in sleep his host of cares. 

When slowly in the east the pilgrim day 

Climbed up the sky, he rose with tranquil mien, 

Examined carefully two weapons there, 

And with unfaltering hand baring his breast. 

Fell on his sword. Some kneeled, and kissed his 

wound; 
Some clasped his arm; and others threw themselves 
Prone on the ground, and him adored as one 
Passed into deity, — nay, hacked their forms, 
To follow him, in pieces on his bier. 
And Plotius wept, and heaped on his gray head 
Ashes; and wise Paulinus said: "He chose 
The nobler part, and now is with the dead." 
May not this end, in minds of highest thinking, 
Grant amnesty — 

Martial Requiescat in pace!: 

The day for man most truly fortunate, 
Is when they lay him in the tomb. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 41 



THE TABLES TURNED. 

Love in his bower lay fast asleep. 
I grimly said: ''Now will I creep 
Behind that bank of flowers, and steal 
The arrows that such misery deal 
To heart of man, and them destroy, 
That never more so sweet annoy 
Perplex our life." With trembling pace, 
Parting the vines that interlace 
His pleasant bed, I neared the god; 
When lo! up from the fragrant sod 
He sprang, and laughter in his eyes 
Flowing, in mock alarm he cries: 
*' Nearer to death I never came!" 
Then to his cheek a shaft of flame 
He drew, and in my breast it sped: 
I who had thought revolt to head, 
Am now in gentle bondage led. 

•I H 



42 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



ROBESPIERRE. 
»? »? 

Intolerant of life, her blind command 

You yet too well obeyed. Deeply the air 
Was loaded with the accents of despair: 
The people saw that dagger in your hand 

Dilated to a huge supernal brand 

To lop all human heads: and the ancient heir 
Of misery smiled, for that the ghastly fare 
Of hate and fear was spread upon the land. 

Yet other were you bred ! Steeped was your youth 
In fount of fairest lore; humanity 
Sat with you on the bench; the face of truth 

And wisdom shone thro glass of penury; 

And pressed your mind to the Utopian isles 
Upon whose citizens perfection smiles. 



•5 •! 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 43 



BELISARIUS. 

'Twas in your dreams a monarch would repay 

Such services! Load you he could with chains; 
Drinking his sycophants' empoisoned strains 
That doomed you in a noisome cell decay. 

Now let his arm avail to keep at bay 

The hordes of Vandals from the Dacian plains; 
And close the reeking mouth of war that drains 
His subjects' blood — if he can learn the way. 

Tho chained, be chainless in the thoughts that feed 
Upon your heroic past; your victor sword 
That carved out empire for a faithless lord; 

The kings you led in triumph; and the meed 
Of purer glory that could only frown 
On them who offered scepter and a crown. 



•5 »l 



44 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE SEA GULL* 

I saw thee cleaving thro that crystal tide 

The sun pours on the sea; 
With wing undrooping o'er the waters wide, 

In lonely liberty. 

Far from that icy nest, thy place of birth. 
Where screamed thy hungry brood, 

On tameless pinions rovest thou the earth — 
A guest of solitude. 

Or, comrade of the tempest, in thy heart 

What solemn joys abide. 
When riven are the clouds, and lightnings dart 

Flame arrows by thy side. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 45 

Amid the storm thy voice arises high, 

Unterrified and free, 
As if the genius of the frenzied sky 

An organ found in thee. 

But when the anger of the homeless wave 

Is soothed by touch of Hght, 
Thou gently ridest on that tempest's grave. 

Like some aerial sprite. 

Or some cold spirit of the vasty deep 

Come to the upper air, 
Escaped those halls where shapeless monsters keep 

Watch o'er the Nereids fair. 



•? H 



46 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



A QTIZEN OF THE WORLD* 

His nation's borders do not trace 
A line of hatred for the race; 
His franchised heart o'erleaps the sea 
In tempered praise and sympathy. 

A priestly dogma can not blind 
To native worth his tolerant mind: 
He deems religions spring from seeds 
Of human character and needs. 

His hope it is to see unfurled 
The flag of justice in the world; 
The blossoms of the social tree 
Bear fruitage of equality. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 47 

Of manners strange he is the guest; 
Takes every custom to his breast; 
In peasant's hut or prince's hall, 
He calmly meets occasion's call. 

It is his faculty to live 
Days active or contemplative, — 
In shadow of a throne, or where 
Another yoke the people bear. 

His sense of liberty deplores 
A wreck of natural rights on shores 
Of tyranny; yet knows the chains 
Will fall when the oppressed ordains. 

He can not teach his lips to praise 
Laws that the eye of freedom glaze; 
But standing on some mount of time 
Discerns beyond an age sublime; 

An age in which the earth may shine 
With glories thought before divine; 
Careless if man this pledge redeem, 
Or it remain a noble dream. 



48 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE MARCH WOODS* 

When sunny days have torn the bitter rime 
From winter's beard, pleasant it is to seek 
The gray March woods. Falls from the paly sky 
A cold light which clasps on the trees' bare boughs 
Bracelets of gold. Not yet the caltha buds, 
In yellow hoods, bend laughing o'er the brook; 
Nor could the red man find a frail blood-root 
To stain his cheeks for war. But hallowed here 
To a dear past that in my house of dreams 
Forever dwells, the silence and the gloom 
Invite my steps. Hard by a rivulet 
The diffident ferns part, with dark green fronds, 
A roof of withered leaves, and drink the light. 
Squadrons of rank cord grass clamber on bogs. 
And point their emerald spears as to defend 
Some fairy of the glen. There creeps the moss, 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

A brother to the rock, where dampness bides; 

Or gently binds upon the oak's strong feet 

Sandals of green. A fatuous butterfly, 

His purple wings mottled and trimmed with silver, 

Flutters from tuft to tuft, and woos the sun. 

A blue bird nestles on an ashen branch. 

Mute since the dawn; or down a shaft of light 

Swift slides, to seize a beetle refugee 

From his old home of night. I see the fields, 

Thro chestnut corridors, stretch, clad in brown. 

And turn my footsteps back. But well I know 

The keen intrepid marshal of the storm 

Will ride, with winter's warrant, thro the sky. 

And of these genial days make bold arrest; 

And bail his surly minions out again. 



K^ 



50 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



KARNAK* 

There was a glory once upon her brow. 

The light of art and arms, when sceptered kings 
Turned thro her hundred gates the golden 
springs 

Of half the east. Went up the pious vow 

In temples whose dimensions might compare 

With nature's work. The marble soared above 
In sculptured obelisk; or calmly strove 

In sphinx the genius of the world to snare. 

And myriads there her market place would call; 

And commerce came and built her peaceful 
throne; 

And wealth spoke in her proud imperious tone; 
And grandeur threw her purple gleam o'er all. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 51 

Now strays the moonlight solemnly and slow 
Along her aisles of ruin. Solitude 
Is startled only by the prowling, rude 

Hyena to whose fiendish laugh the low 

Arches surrender up a querulous band 

Of echoes in some viewless prison pent; 
While endlessly o'er cornice, pediment 

And fallen column flow the seas of sand. 



K n 



52 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE YOUNG MAGICIAN. 

Echo, heart free, no lock put on her tongue; 

Fled quietude, and silence gave a groan: 
But when into her breast love's flames were flung, 

She pined away, and clad her voice in stone. 



^ ^ 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 53 



THE GREAT LEVELLER. 

Pride, turn thou up the ashes of the grave 

Where high and low the debt to nature pay, 
And show me there the difference in the clay 

That once had clothed the monarch and the slave. 



H H 



54 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE SUiaDEL 

With face in pallor framed the sufferer lay. 

The xanthous locks strayed on his dampening 

brow, 
And hid the wound thro which the spirit's prow 
Steered into unknown seas. Light of a day 

Faith prophesies, had paled and gloomed away 
From those sad traits, if this contempt allow 
Such dwelling there, o'er whose decay the bough 
Of coldness shall forever bend and sway. 

Why creeps a tremor round my heart for him 

Whose bark of life was wrecked upon despair? 
Few were his years; yet even to the brim 

They filled his cup of misery, loss and care, 

Until he summoned peace. Now, never more 
Shall tides of grief beat on his mortal shore. 



^ IC 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 55 



CLAUDIAN. 

Shorn were the tresses of the Roman sun 

That lit the world, by the Barbarian night ;i 
Her line of generals, artists, men of might, 
Gnawed by decay; a web of dullness spun 

In palace of the mind; the state undone 

By civil rage, despair, corruption's blight, 
And all the birds of weakness that alight 
On fields of life when evil's bands have won. 

In this arena you undaunted sprung. 

By genius armed alone; and rolled the tide 
Of thirty decades back, to show how sung 

The epic masters from their place of pride; 

Shedding on art that bound in darkness lay, 
A glimmer of the rare Virgilian day. 



^ t^ 



56 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE LOCOMOTIVR 
^ »i 

With gleaming flag of lurid red, 
He charges thro the vale; 

And trembles earth beneath that tread 
Cased in such iron mail: 

His course no mighty rivers stop; 

No arm of sea; no mountain top. 

Thro regiments of steely rain, 

Thro ranks of blinding snow. 

He dauntless bears his winding train, 
With primal heart a-glow; 

And motion graceful as the dance 

Of planets in the starred expanse. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 57 

In smoke he robes his giant form, 
And screeches loud and shrill; 

And under vengeful sun and storm, 
Pursues his journey still; 

The while his thews and muscles gain 

New vigor from the mortal strain. 

All thro the,night with clang and roar, 

He travels on his way: 
The winged steed on Grecian shore 

No swifter course could lay; 
Nor be, when thousand miles are past, 
Unwearied as the viewless blast. 

The tongue of fable has not told 

What here in fact we see, — 
A genuine power that mocks the old 

Bewailed divinity: 
Yet shall this power be overthrown. 
And still a greater rule alone. 



H I? 



58 IN I'Al.h.S ()!• lll'.I.IKON. 



A RED am:n AiN. 

Thoy friii^Hit lilcf li^fors when iIkh Mood 
J'aiiimc III v.'iflc',; lil.c Li:iv<- men, vvlicii llic fr)C, 
Willi ( I iirl Ii.'iikI',, |»oIIiiIc', I licir ii.il i v<- land. 
'J lit* halllc la^'rd ,0011 a^, lli<- miii''. rc(| face 
Peered o'ei Vii I'inia''. lulls, iiiilil il sank, 
< >ii iliai ( )( lol.ci day, wearied, a^^hast, 
I iilo Ohio';, ',1 icaiii. And I -o|'an's voice 
Arose ahove Ihc i<iii|)(:,i of iIk- stiife: 

** Ik* slron^', niy waniors! L<1 no weakness live 
Around yoin hearlsl The \ a>\\\\ Knives dreiK lied 

wil h I inn 
Your hrolhcrs' hraiiis; then !.owed a eroj> of steel, 
To hrealv lli<- |)<a(<-, on llicii defniceless forms. 
Let n(jne eseape! ( iive ^ive I hcni all lo death, 
That so yoni" deeds may lansoin hai k aj^ain 
Jii'.li(c ti|>on llir cailh; aii<l y(»n may hear 



IN VALES OP URLIKON. 59 

Back to your forest towns, and to your squaws, 
In answer tlironging to your scal]> lialloo, 
The pledges of the slain." 

Tlio hrave Cayuga struck 
A pale-face down, and garnered in his belt 
The reeking scalp; and in (he hrain of one 
Who turned to flee, planted his tomahawk. 
But all in vain; for fate around his band 
Coils of destruction wove, anrl Dunmore's plans 
Conversed with victory. 

Deep in the forest sat the Chief. 
CJver his head a canopy of gold 
The maples spread; and from a mossy rock 
A silver rivulet trickling, gleamed and ran 
Babbling before his feet. He scorned to meet 
The whites in council; but their messenger 
Awaited a1 his side to know his will. 
The eagle's plume that drooped on his shaved head, 
An errant ball had cut in twain. The paint 
That j>ictiu-ed in dull hues, on face and chest, 
The story of his wrongs, was blurred and streaked 
By deeper tides than tears. In silence long 



60 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

He sat, while tossed his mind on memory's seas; 
Then lifting up his eyes, like smouldering coals, 
In guttural tones he said: 

"Can any pale-face say 
Hungr}/ he entered Logan's lodge, and he 
Gave him not meat; or if he came to him 
Naked and cold, and Logan clothed him not? 
When Pontiac's thirst for war brought to an end 
The quiet days, sat Logan in his wigwam, 
An advocate of peace. Such was my love 
For them unworthy, grieved my tribe would say, 
As I passed by, 'See there the white man's friend!' 
I even thought to go and dwell with you. 
When Cresap in cold blood, and unprovoked, 
Murdered the family of Logan, all, 
Women and children, hurling in the grave: 
There runs no drop of the Cayuga's blood 
In any living veins. This called on me 
For terrible revenge — nor called in vain! 
On countless lives I threw the noose of death, 
My vengeance glutting! Now the beams of peace 
I welcome for my country. Yet do not 
Harbor the thought mine is the joy of fear. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 61 

Fear Logan never felt. To save his life, 
Pale-face, he would not turn him on his heel. 
For Logan, who is there to mourn? Not one!" 

Upon the air his mournful accents died. 

From the dim woods, the shades crept out and stole 

LTp to the sky. The stars with golden feet 

Stepped, one by one, forth on that purple floor. 

And the chill dews dropped from their crystal home, 

A cloak of vapor to wrap up the form 

Of the bronzed chieftain where, thro the long night. 

Companioned by despair, rock-like he crouched 

In silent grief. 



n H 



62 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE HOME OF GOD* 

Ben Ali sought for God on sea and land; 

In dawns where, on the elysian fields of light, 
Day^s champion struggles with the dragon night,. 
And drenches with his blood the hyaline strand; 

In the oases where the brow is fanned, 

The lips refreshed, as death begins to write 
His codicil on the heart; in storms that smite 
The unflinching earth: all this was nature's hand. 

Then the Arabian paused, and looked within, 

Looked on that battle plain where met in strife 
Armies unseen, where stretched the form of sin 

Mangled and dying; and his perfect life. 

The home of justice, made him now aware 
His quest was ended, since he found Him there. 



•I «? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE MAJESTY OF DEATH. 

In life his features wore a callous, shrewd 

Expression, born and bred of love of gold. 
Crawled to his lips a sneer that oft unrolled 
Upon the ear a phrase contemptuous, rude, 

When patient faith for charity has sued. 
In circle of his eye a season cold 
Had ever reigned; the passion that had sold 
Humanity, kept it in servitude. 

But when the fatal hand of death was laid 

Soft on his brow, it wrought what wondrous 

change ! 
Vice and its cohorts raised their long blockade; 

Nobility unwonted came to range 

On that sad plain: the mortal plant decayed, 
Budded a spirit flower, pale, solemn, strange. 



n n 



64 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE RELEASED CONVICT. 

The prison doors closed on him in his youth 

When tides of hope ran high; 
They opened; when he scorned both men and truth, 

With cold maUgnant eye. 

Behind his grated window sprang to view 

The ravaged face of hate — 
Despair — and all that gloomy retinue 

Which crowds misfortune's gate. 

He felt within his breast the brand of wrong 

Burn deep and deeper still; 
While unavailing rage, with scorpion thong, 

Beat down his feeble will. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 65 

A flock of curses lit upon his tongue 

To vent his bootless grief; 
His heart, by agony and sorrow wrung, 

In hatred found relief. 

With leaden step marched on the bitter years, 

And set him free again; 
Yet he, an outcast in this world of tears, 

Would longer wear the chain. 

He hated men, and spurned at gracious ways; 

Forgot the name of God; 
Mocked law, nor dreaded if his latter days 

Should feel her chastening rod. 



•? H 



66 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

APRIU 

*i •? 

Now, rest, fair harbinger of May! 

Dies out the winter's cry. 
Dream on this bank where sunbeams play: 

And pales yon cloud-swept sky. 

Pursuit of March no longer fear — 
His steps have gone astray: 

For thee the brook runs pure and clear; 
The bird sings on the spray. 

The patient earth is roused at last, 
And breaks the chain of sleep, 

To hear thy heart beat wild and fast — 
To feel thy pulses leap. 

Thy tears have robed the grass in green; 

Thy breath has waked the flowers; 
And falls a gleam of days serene 

Amid these leafing bowers. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 67 

THE DAWN MAIDEN* 
•? I? 

On amber couch the maid of dawn 

In gentle slumber lay, 
When on his golden chariot borne 

Drove up the god of day. 

He saw, and loved the maiden bright, 

And stretched his arms in love: 
She, waking, fled his throne of light, 

To realms of blue above. 

Long time he sent his vassal rays 

The darkness to invade; 
And there where evening slowly strays, 

They found the lovely maid. 

Her brow gleamed with a tranquil star 

That multiplied her charms; 
And, bending from his blazing car, 

The day leaped in her arms. 



68 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



A SUNSET ON THE SEA* 

The sun, a crimson shield, dropped down the west, 
And thro a golden haze, flashed on the sea 
A lane of rosy beams. Each billow's crest 
Flaming with aerial rubies, modestly 

Stooped to a brother wave, and smoothed its brow; 
Until the waters, iris-hued, displayed 
Such mirror opaline you might avow 
The fancy — heaven in arms of ocean laid. 

On a cloud isle, some wreck of fairy land, 

Some blest abode where love might raise his 

throne, 
Rippled the fading rays. Slowly the night 

In violet cloak came on, studding her zone 

With silver stars; and on the pearly strand 
Of parting day, setting a vase of light. 



1^ •« 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE CHALDEAN PLAINS. 
^ *s 

Here nature scattered wealth with lavish hand; 

And from the bosom of darkness constant drew 

Horns of fertility. The retinue 

Of greatness followed, — cities on the strand 

That noble rivers washed; arts to disband 

The troops of savagery. The softest blue 
Dwelt in their sky; and on the mountains grew 
Colors that wrapt in mystery stream and land. 

Dead is their empire; but a spirit born 

Within those fastnesses, has wandered wide, 
The wrecks of time surviving. The forlorn, 

Those that in halls of lowliness abide. 

Have hailed it as the Persian hails the morn 
When o'er the hills her crimson banners ride. 



n ^ 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE EAGLK 

»^ »s 
No crowded streets with hum of Ufe; 
No human haunts where vice is rife; 
No vulgar pomp of tyranny, — 
Are liege to thee! 

To stand in frown of so much ill, 
Thy fretful spirit quick would kill, 
Thou comrade of the earnest night, 
The priest of light! 

There, visions entertain thine eye 
Made guest of beauty, — earth, and sky, 
And loneliness that doth parole 
A noble soul. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 71 

Larks follow spring. The swallow dwells 
Footman to summer. Thy heart swells 
To war with nature, make thy prey 
The steeds of day. 

Drink only blood. Thy feeble breed 
Fling from the nest. Yet Ganymede 
Shall praise thee on Olympian snow, 
And I below. 



t^ y^ 



72 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

THE OLD YEAR. 

Go, wander with thy pack of ills 

Upon oblivion's shore; 
Bent double with the grief that kills, 

The thoughts that death adore. 

Day ever flees the arms of night; 

And time our purpose jeers: 
The year that came with promise bright, 

A perjurer disappears. 

I turn me to thy smiling heir. 
As once I turned to thee. 

For days that shall the soul declare 
In peace and liberty. 

And I will crown him in my heart 

With diadem of truth; 
Since hope has quaffed, despite thine art. 

The fount of endless youth. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 73 



LORELLA. 

She is a queen upon a throne 

Not made by human hands; 
She conquers by a smile alone, 

And by a glance commands; 
And all the tribute of my soul 

Is laid upon her shrine, 
While bending to a new control 

I grow, like her, divine. 

I may not ask her heart to give 

What mine has given her: 
Enough it is that I may live 

Her beauty's pensioner; 
May gaze upon her spotless brow, 

And in her glorious eyes; 
And deem that fortune grants me now 

A glimpse of paradise. 



74 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE FIELDS OF ASPHODEL. 

I trod the joyless land; 
I saw the hopeless shades; 

I felt the stern, the iron hand 
No human heart evades: 
I heard the souls that roam, 
Beneath a solemn spell, — 

Still conscious of their earthly home- 
In fields of asphodel. 

No golden light of day 

Falls on these meadows green; 

No star, the realms of night to sway, 
On ruby throne is seen; 
No smiles, no looks that chid 
The fates which domineer, 

No hope that comes to men unhid, 
Visit the dweller here. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 75 

But here to grief succeeds 

An age of mournful calm, 
And breathes an air across these meads 

That brings the spirit balm, — 

Such peace in mortal hours 

The mind had never known. 
Which grows while grow those sacred flowers 

By tender memories sown. 



I? •! 



76 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



ARIADNK 

I look upon the sea, the treacherous sea, 
But deem its breast is innocent and free 
Compared with man's. 

O Aegean wave! 
Whose azure feet dance on the shore and lave 
The sullen rocks and blinking sands with foam, 
Within thy liquid mansions is no home 
For her who loved not wisely, but too well! 

Naxos! believed a heaven and found a hell, 

On whose proud hills with vines and olives crowned. 

The Bacchic train leaped to the tabors' sound. 

In flush of happiness with Theseus trod. 

Fancied in honor equal to a god, — 

A sty of horror art thou now to me. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 11 

A refuge of all lies and perfidy, 
Wherein I stagger with a blind despair, 
And love and life forswear. 

The lightning blast these hoary oaks and pines; 
In myriad pieces splinter all the shrines 
Where sacrifices man ! A pestilence 
Tread with red foot, and burn his every sense, 
Till he shall feel within his heart of hearts. 
Tenfold the pain that thro my bosom darts! 
Then sink this isle beneath the restless wave, 
And bury love and me in one wide grave! 



•s •? 



78 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE BURNING THRONK 

•I ^ 

What tho he now possessed a separate throne 

Cushioned and draped with fire; and the new 

world 
In which he was sole king, had seen unfurled 
The grisly flag of death; and wail and moan 

Made music to all ears, except his own? 

Even the spirits downward with him hurled, 
Contented walked those mystic halls impearled 
With hopeless tears, while he remained alone! 

He was but lord of half the universe. 

The part of darkness; while in realms of light 
His great antagonist pronounced the curse 

Of banishment. And ever, in despite. 

He dreams, with sleepless eyes, to reimburse 
His fortunes — be supreme by fraud or might. 



•I I? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 79 



AUGUST. 
•? •? 

Methinks a matron crowned with fruits and flowers 
Is latching summer's gate. Thy golden hair 
Streams to the earth; thine eyes glance soft as 

rare 
Sapphires that gleam in Ceylon tides. The 
towers 
Of snowy clouds in which the radiant hours 

Wait for the night, are fillets thou dost wear 
Around thy brow; while deep thine ankles bare 
Stand in the corn, and in the purpling bowers. 
Thy days are so serene that autumn makes 
Reprisals for his own. Before thy glass 
He bids the eldest of his months to pass, 
And robe her like to thee,— with crystal lakes 
Of azure in her sky, and amber light 
Like sunset rolls upon the coast of night. 



•? •! 



80 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



ANDRONIKUS. 

Around the human tigers stood, 
Their eyes ablaze with hate: 

To tear his heart — to lap his blood — 
With snarling lips they wait. 

They ravished out his teeth and hair, 
Wrenched off a hand — an eye; 

Then hung him by the feet in air, 
While curses drowned his cry. 

His parching throat' this hour of need 
Uttered one humble word: 

"Why will ye bruise a broken reed? 
Have mercy on me, Lord!" 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 81 

A bloody mist crept o'er his brain, 

A torment rived his heart; 
Till pain was subjugate by pain, 

Falling by its own dart. 

The prison, throne and army now 

In shadows fade away; 
A hueless dampness streaks that brow 

Where beauty held her sway. 

The queens who laid their innocence 

On altar of his love. 
Flicker before his wildered sense. 

Beneath, around, above. 

His glazing eye turned on the crowd, 
Mute asks some friendly hand 

To send his spirit still unbowed. 
Back to its native land. 

That mournful glance plunged in his side 

A soldier's generous sword, 
Who, 'mong the faithless, did abide 

Still faithful to his lord. 



82 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



BRITOMARTK 

The bosky wilds; Ihe solitude 
With trifles waging endless feud; 
The haunts of darkness; liberty, 
Enamored thee. 

The breast of snow where Dian held 
Young purity, thine own excelled: 
Love, scorned and famished, did depart 
Thy marble heart. 

That cup of beauty do not quaff, 
O Kretan king! The epitaph 
Of all thy gladness she will write, 
In thy despite. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 83 

She is no maid of mortal mould, 
But one unfeminine and cold; 
A sprite or lamia who will spurn 
Thine art to learn. 

No dawn, calm chamberlain of day; 
Nor purple sea; nor thine array 
Of duties to the shades below, 
May balm bestow. 

Her pallid face, her dripping hair, 
Shall make thee prisoner of despair; 
And every jury of the years 

Condemn to tears. 



K 9t 



84 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE CAVE DWELLERS- 

Folded in gloom they crouched and munched a bone; 
Or tore apart the quivering limbs of deer 
To drink their blood. The club, the flinted spear^ 
Leaned by the cavern wall; and in the lone 

Watches of night, the rain's unloosened zone 

Their rocky bed was flooding. Smote their ear 
The forest cries, their brown cheeks paled with 

fear; 
And in their door they rolled the massive stone. 

Yet in this soil the seed of art and law 

Fell from an unseen hand. These soulless ways 
Were paths that led to lives of halcyon days; 

And as by progress slow the mask of war 

Was drawn away, man, by a strange device 
Worshiped the past and called it paradise. 



I? •? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 85 



THE DORIAN LINK 

Let not the eager vanities betray 

Thy dedicated life; feed thou thine art, 
In compensation, to thy famished heart 
Which sentiment and passion make their prey. 

He dies to fame, who bows him to the sway 
Of fashionable days; he mounts the cart 
For a new guillotine, who seeks a part 
Upon that stage where men their pride display. 

Listen, betimes, and hear the Dorian line 

In solemn grandeur rolling! Freedom, here; 
Beauty for which the generous soul will pine; 

And hopes that can the mind despondent cheer, 
Despite of human baseness; — all are thine 
To indemnify thy birth on such a sphere. 



•t »l 



86 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



CUBA* 

I? •? 

The despot's hand is on thy throat, 

His dagger at thy breast; 
And in thine ear his savage note, 

To yield — or take thy rest! 

Was it for this our fathers found 

A home beyond the sea, 
Where they on whom the tyrants frowned 

Might dwell in Hberty? 

Has so much blood been shed in vain — 

Set free so many slaves — 
Thy right must now be taught to Spain 

Upon her children's graves? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

In blinded passion let her rage, 
And clank thy broken chain: 

Thou canst not, with such heritage, 
Put on that yoke again. 

Blood can not quench the holy fire 
That burns within thy soul; 

But higher shall it flame, and higher, 
Till thou reach freedom's goal. 

Then falter not! And let thy blows, 
Sad isle, fall swift and strong; 

Till everywhere thine ancient foes 
Lie buried with their wrong. 



^ ^ 



88 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

A SLAVE OF PLEASURK 

Her brow is fair as in the days 

Played on it rays of innocence; 
Her lips the witching smile frequents 

With which the debt of love she pays. 

She lives beneath the blaze that flares 

From gilded domes in midnight hours; 
And recklessly the subtle powers 

That lurk in wine, confronts and dares. 

Insouciant and gay, her tongue 

Forbids her memory dark to go 
Back to her past; an endless flow 

Of banter keeps her spirits young. 

She wins the cold with pleasing wit. 
Or fascinates with repartee: 
I furl my sorrow's sail on lee 

Of wonder — to her spells submit. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. m 

What is that harshness in her tone, 
That sudden boldness in her eye, 
Which ne'er before could I descry, 

And tells her finest charm is flown? 

Ah! in that eye the maiden light 
Is troubled by a viewless cloud; 
In lonely hours her head is bowed, 

And sinks her soul in seas of night. 

The light that from the altar fell 

Her veil of passion turned to gloom; 
But proud she walks the path of doom, 

And careless goes with grief to dwell. 



^ ^ 



90 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



WASHINGTON. 

We may not say that all the virtues dwelt 

In thy great soul — human it was, and bowed 
To stately faults, living above the crowd 
Whose hearts at warm affection's altar knelt. 

Yet in that cloud was nurtured the complete 
And perfect will no storms of danger bent; 
When confidence was fled, still confident; 
Drinking the bitter chalice of defeat, 

And still achieving. Nations may worship them 
Who stride to glory over human graves: 
Be our praise thou who put a scepter by, 

Choosing to wear the nobler diadem 

Of worth, for buffeting oppression's waves, 
And adding one great star to freedom's sky. 



^ n. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 91 



THE SEA OF DARKNESS. 

»? I? 

Broods over it the o^loom of endless night; 

And wander there, with sad, mysterious sound, 
Winds from the outer realm. The cureless wound 
Of desolation bleeds upon the white 

Sands peering o'er the waves, with aconite 

And mandragora drooping on the ground; 
Or monstrous heads stretch from the depths pro- 
found 
Unvisited by sun, or petrels' flight. 

Here no sail comes, and passes safely by; 

No prow this ocean ploughs, by human hands 
Fashioned and steered. The cloudless ebon sky 

Is rent an instant; angry, sulphurous brands 
Descend, destroying; while, in quick reply, 
The billow opens, and its prey demands. 



«? I? 



S2 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



ARMENIA. 

^ I? 

And here where first the saving cross 
Was lifted to a nation's gaze, 

The Sultan tramples on her corse, 

And smiles that Christ his faith betrays! 

The Tigris, the Euphrates stream. 

The rock-bound Van, the Khabodan, 

Flashed back the deadly lances gleam, 

And dyed with blood of martyrs ran. 

That Moslem spear, that Moslem sword 
Which broke against the Pyrenees, 

Are burnished by the Hves that poured 
To seal a bigot's dark decrees. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Prom Caspian wave to Kurdistan 

The mountain's breath is freedom's home 
No more: the laws of Islam ban 

Her feet upon that soil to roam. 

And idly by the nations stand, 

Nor seek to cleanse that reeky den: 

We live beneath a new command, 
We see the age of sordid men. 



tp. s? 



94 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



OLYMPIAN DAYS* 

*s *? 

When Hercules, admitted to his rest, 
Slighted the deity of wealth, and lived 
In that eternal spring, that cloudless clime, 
As he were not, among the sacred host 
Amazement ran; and Jupiter exclaimed, 
His cypress scepter shaking: 

''My Theban, what is this! Not only strength 
And beauty must be worshiped, but the wand 
That charms the ugly beast of poverty, 
Be dedicate in temple of the mind." 

And then, uprising from his ivory throne, 
He said in kinder tone: 

*'If he, with hand capricious, pour on men 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 95 

A golden rain, consider he is blind; 
And even so lame he can not overtake 
The foot of merit. Yet a recompense 
Hides in those restless wings that bear away 
Riches more rapid than they come." 

He sat him down, 
And stroked his eagle's head. Smiling replied 
The strong of arm: 

"O Father, be it so! 
But I have seen so often on the earth 
That god with rascals going arm in arm, 
I feared to soil the gloss of my new life 
Addressing him in heaven." 



^ •? 



96 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE SOLDIER'S GRAVEL 

The rays of peace fall on the land — 

The land for which you died; 
And where your life flowed in the sand, 

Rivers of verdure glide : 
And tho your form fades into dust, 

Obeying time's decree, 
Our memory fondly holds in trust 

Your valor's legacy. 

We see your battle fields again; 

We hear the cannon's roar; 
While half those serried ranks of men 

Sink down to rise no more; 
Or, spite of mercy's anguished calls. 

Paled on the bayonet; 
Or, 'neath the dungeon's fatal walls, 

In death their ills forget. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

Your part is done. Tis ours to bring 

A chaplet to your grave; 
A word to speak, a song to sing, 

That tell how died the brave; 
Whose deeds on scroll of fame are spread, 

And graved on honor's urn; 
While round the campment of the dead 

The fires of glory burn. 



K »? 



98 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

SAINT BERNARD. 

Nay, do not pray that I may live — 

Pray rather that I go! 
The earth has nothing more to give 

When Hes the spirit low — 
Except a grave within her breast, 
Where one may drink his fill of rest. 

Bear witness, Christ, my love for thee; 

How I have borne thy cross; 
And drained the dregs of poverty; 

And counted sleep a loss. 
So I might spread thy gracious name- 
Thy kingdom to the world proclaim! 

I was not in the purple born. 

Nor taught to wield the sword; 

But I a cloak of power have worn 
That few who called them lord 

Have ever worn, — a spiritual power 

Kings envied in their proudest hour. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

My mandate filled the Roman throne; 

I silenced keen Abelard; 
And kings hung on my will alone 

The scales of peace and war; 
And more, I preached the great crusade 
That Europe 'gainst the Turk arrayed. 

How often have the worldly sires 

Their children hid away, 
That thro religion's purging fires, 

My tongue has led to day! 
But now that tongue is moved by breath 
Lent only by the victor death. 

Dear friends! my sands of life are run; 

The grave is made for me: 
The web that earth and time had spun 

Torn by eternity! 
My work is done. With willing heart 
Unto my Master I depart. 



100 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



LAW- 

H I? 

Your hand has led, with faltering steps and slow, 
Man from the forest, the desert and the cave. 
Your face so stern, so pitiless and grave, 
Within his breast has weakened streams that flow 

O'er beds of violence. The cities grow 

On that land where your peaceful banners wave; 
And wealth is harvested where man was slave 
To poverty, or laid the weaker low. 

Now you are shrined in temple of the mind. 
Let all your oracles to justice pay 
A fitting tribute, that the scorners find 

No blemish on the ermine of your sway; 

Nor show the people in their passion blind. 
Beneath your golden vestments feet of clay. 



^ 9i 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 101 



SPAIN, 
•? I? 

In caverns of decay she dwells, mid bones 

Of peoples she has slain. Her hands are red 
With innocent blood; her tiger soul is fed, 
As death diseases feed, by Cuba's groans. 

They ask for freedom's bread. She gives them stones; 
And threatens to wave her scepter o'er the dead, 
Ere she will shorten by a single shred 
That cloak of tyranny the age disowns. 

And there is one in apathy sits by, 

Who clothed in power could make her will a law; 
Or turns upon this woe a callous eye. 

And bends the shrine of riches to adore; 
While every wind an agonizing cry 
From liberty bears to her deafened shore. 
1896. 



•? •? 



102 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE MELOUNA PASS. 

Again, the Asian hordes pour down, 

Again the thrilling cry 
Rings thro the vale and thro the town 

''Arm, Hellenes, or die!" 

At Europe's gate ye fearless stand 
Where erst your fathers stood, 

To guard your sad devoted land. 
To stem the Othman flood. 

Ye reck not if the Moslem creed 

Give Paradise to all 
Who in the cause of Islam bleed, 

On field of battle fall. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 103 

Nor reck ye if the Christian powers 

Draw for your foes the sword; 
And plot, while hate their breast devours, 

To keep the Turk your lord. 

Your fatal passion is the fame 

Of that superior time 
Which set, thro art and arms, your name 

In crown of the sublime. 

On Marathon arise the dead, 

And in Thermopylae; 
And by your side in battle tread — 

A spectral company. 

But if ye fall beneath the hand 

Of numbers, treachery cold. 
Your deeds must haunt your glorious land 
Like theirs who bled of old. 
1897. 



s? s? 



104 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE ABDICATION. 

We loved, but parted in the hour 

That anger ruled my heart; 
Nor deemed that pride possessed the power 

To rend our lives apart. 

We met again when time had bent 

My mind to wisdom's sway; 
But absence had in exile sent 

Her thoughts of yesterday. 

Her lovely eye was calm and clear; 

Her hand cold touched mine own; 
And as her voice fell on mine ear, 

I knew that love had flown. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 105 



CONSOLATION. 

If, 'neath a load of grief and care, 
Upon the road of life you fare, 

And quondam friends betray; 
Say to your soul depressed and low 
With man's unfaith and fortune's blow: 

This, too, will pass away. 

Against the regiments of change 
There is no guard; for ever range 

The bandits of decay: 
And if your life is hard and sad, 
Remember, heart in sorrow clad, 

It, soon, will pass away. 



»i *t 



106 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



A THRALL OF VICK 

In drunken sleep the mother lay, 
Her garments torn and vile; 

Her coarse and matted hair astray; 
While wounds her face defile. 

The mother lay in shameful sleep; 

A child played by her side, 
Sought in her nerveless arms to creep, 

And prattled, laughed and cried. 

The wind came thro the broken pane; 

Sputtered the candle's spark; 
The embers sank in ashen rain; 

The room grew cold and dark. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 107 

The child had ceased its playing now, 

And fretful plained for food; 
As hunger burned its pulse and brow 

In that dread solitude. 

The night wore on. The woman slept 

A heavy sodden sleep. 
The child no longer moaned and wept, 

But sank in slumber deep. 

The sun stole in. The mother woke 

With flamed and aching head; 
And stretched her hand, and faintly spoke 

To one who now was dead. 



^ I? 



108 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



MACBETH. 

My name no longer conquers, and I feel 

Burning the crown from hand of honor won; 

In paths accurst my drunken fortunes reel: 
I grow to be a-weary of the sun. 

The fatal hags have pressed their drops of bane 
Upon my hope, and juggled with my soul; 

Since Birnam wood now comes to Dunsinane, 
And clouds of doubt upon my spirit roll. 

For Banquo's children have I called remorse 
Into my mind, and made my futile sword 

Wealthy with blood drained from my country's corse: 
Still followed by lip-service, but abhorred. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 109 

Yet do I wear, prophetic voices tell, 

An unseen mail that laughs my foes to scorn. 
To conquer me they must unpeople hell: 

I may not yield to one of woman born. 

Time shall confront these terrors with a smile, 

Disarming them, or robbing them of power; 

So I may walk once more the happy isle 

Of peace, and know again a tranquil hour. 

Does one the hopeless combat now demand? 

MacdufT, torn timeless from his mother's breast! 
Then in this house of blood invite thy brand, 

And be with Duncan dissolution's guest! 



^ VL 



110 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



ORESTES* 

With hand yet dripping with thy mother's blood, 

What now unnerves thee? The polkited ground 
Opens, that drank the parricidal wound; 
And blossoms to thy sight the fatal bud 

Of retribution — that grim sisterhood 

In black and gory garments, temples bound 
With hissing serpents, eyes of flame that round 
Volley despair, and pour a scorpion flood 

Upon thy soul. Flee thou the spot accurst! 
The temple seek of him who lives in light; 
Who counseled thee, and can enstar thy night 

With rays of hope. Then may these bonds be burst 
That chain thy life to horror, and release 
Come at the end when time shall whisper — 
peace! 



n •? 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. Ill 



THE AONIAN MOUNT. 

Time was when streams of song poured down thy 
side, 
And ravished every ear. Thy barren land 
Defied the peasant's tminstructed hand, 
But fertile grew when claimed and made the 
bride 

Of rich imagination. Soul replied 

To soul; the mind was raptured by a band 
Laureled and ever young, at whose command 
The doors of inspiration opened wide. 

But now thy founts are dry. The oak, the pine. 
Guard silently the haunts of fancy's child; 
The snows that crown thy brow are but a shrine 

Where desolation by the storm is piled; 

Those notes of music that were deemed divine, 
Strains of the forest by the wind beguiled. 



•5 I? 



112 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



TO THE CUBAN RECONCENTRADOS. 

n I? 

Driven from home, your fertile fields despoiled, 

Your houses wrapped in flames, and the fair scenes 

Beloved made desolate, you slowly die 

Within the Spanish walls, by Spain's decree. 

You may not labor, may not in the sea 

Cast hook and line, fell hunger to appease; 

Or turn to flee. A meager charity 

Relieved, a while, your woe; but, unlike crime. 

That spring ran dry. The refuse of the streets, 

And animals unclean, were all that war, 

And man, allowed your lot within a land 

Nature had made the richest on the globe. 

Soon in your ranks starvation stepped, and slew 

More than the sword. His dank and dismal wing 

Flapped on your cheek, and blanched it with despair; 

A fire burnt in your eye, — the strange, wild fire 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 113 

That plays upon the tomb. You raised your face 

Up to the stony skies; and never fell 

Manna to save, nor lightning to destroy. 

Your masters stood, with calm impassive brows, 

Hearts fed by human blood, as I am told, 

And in religion nursed, to see you sink, 

With throes of agony, into the earth. 

A few more pangs, and you that yet remain 
Will sleep beneath the sod. There, human hate 
Can never reach you more. The liberty 
For which you vainly sighed in this strange world, 
Will be all yours. A guilty throne may still 
Stand in its subjects' blood, and coldly slay 
The child of freedom in its very birth. 
You will be natives of another clime, 
And subjects of another king; and may. 
With mute lips in the chambers of the grave, 
Say to the nations when the avenger comes, 
There is no sure foundation set in blood. 
January, i8p8. 



114 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



TO THE MAINE, 

Not when the genius of the storm had flung 
His pall of blackness on the sea and land; 
And from its cloudy sheath the lightning's brand 
Plashed broad and crimson, while the thunders 
rung 

Majestic anthems, was your requiem sung; 

Nor when, in battle, the cannon's hoarse com- 
mand 
Bade all the baleful fires of death be fanned 
To furnace brightness, with its stentor tongue. 

No, not to you was meted such a fate! 

But in a peaceful harbor, when the night 

Was counsel to your foes, their treacherous hate 

In your destruction gluts its appetite; 

No chance to answer in war's fierce debate; 
And on your sudden end no glory's light! 
February, i8p8. 



^ ^ 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 115 



MANILA. 

*S •! 

When dawn unloosed the purple robe of night 
With rosy fingers, there the Spanish fleet 
Its colors waving proud, her glances meet. 
With pride disdainful, in its gloomy might, 
It saw the western foe prepared to smite, 

Ranged on the bay. Descends the fiery sleet; 
The forts, with ball and shell, the assailants greet; 
Columns of smoke repulse the morning light. 
Ere reeled the wearied day thro sunset's gate, 

That pride was blasted, that squadron was no 

more. 
Closed over it the sea insatiate, 
Those decks commanding, in its mufBed roar; 
While on the waters, scathless, calm as fate, 
The victors rode, resistless as of yore. 
May, i8p8. 



»? «? 



116 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



SANTIAGO. 

Their fleets destroyed, the Spaniards said: 

*'Our valiant army will not tread 

Ways of defeat. Let it but face 

The foe, it cancels this disgrace." 

We landed men; we drove them back 

Along the rocky roadless track, 

Seamed with ravines. We scaled the hill 

San Juan, steep, lead-swept, trenched with skill; 

And planted, in their fiery hail. 

Our flag upon the heights. The vale 

Spread at our feet, disclosed the town 

On which our guns began to frown 

And thunder. In burning shot and shell. 

Death in his ghastliest manner fell; 

While famine, heading other pests. 

Sat like a vampire on their breasts. 

It was enough. Their dream of pride 

Sank in surrender's hideous tide. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 117 

WAR* 

H I? 

I drench the world with bloody rain; 
I mow the ranks of human grain 
With burning scythe; I harvest men, 
Then turn to reap new fields again. 

My fires are fed by pride and hate; 
My spectral riders penetrate 
To countless homes, and drag the brave 
Thro tears, into the silent grave. 

But man is man; and I have lent, 
For life-blood in my service spent. 
That diadem of sad renown 
With which the nations soldiers crown. 

My crimson sea sinks in the earth. 
And gives the flowers of glory birth; 
While time, my adjutant, will weave 
Balm garlands round the hearts that grieve. 



118 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 



THE DEAD WARRIOR. 

Upon his bier, beneath the fading skies, 

How quietly he Hes! 
He can not hear his comrades gentle tread 

Around his narrow bed; 
Nor see the debt of love their glances pay 

His cold and senseless clay. 
The drum's reveille, and the cannon's roar 

Shall waken him no more; 
For he, all battles past, is drinking deep 

Of the eternal sleep. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 119 

In morning of his life, he prompt obeyed 

The call his country made; 
His spirits soaring high, his heart aflame 

To climb the hills of fame ; 
And brilliantly upon his sea of dreams 

Fell glory's mystic gleams, — 
The charge, the escalade, the banner torn 

Thro storm of bullets borne, 
Until at last implanted high it wave 

Above the foeman's grave. 

Now ended are those dreams; the heart is stilled 

That once to glory thrilled; 
And all the deeds of prowess he had planned 

In airy fields disband: 
Death was importunate, and seized his prey 

Ere fortune had her day; 
But one will lock in dim oblivion's vaults 

His noble, generous faults, 
And keep, some little time, his virtues green 

In memory's sad demesne. 



120 IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

THE LAST LEAF. 
•5 ^ 

The frost has set his seal 
In flaming colors on thy brow; 
And, one by one, thy comrades steal 

Meekly from every bough. 

In green I saw them dressed, 
Soft rustling in the airs of May; 
Yet thou, by cold decay caressed. 

More beauty dost display. 

Still bend the rain-loved skies 
In fading glory o'er thy head; 
Thro pallid airs the robin flies, 

Altho his voice is dead. 

But soon the winds will fall 
In fury on thy mother tree; 
And thou to earth, at nature's call. 

Wilt flutter silently. 



IN VALES OF HELIKON. 121 

NIGHT* 

A pilgrim thro the world I go, 
Observing tides of passion flow 
From human hearts; with salvaged pen 
Their flotsam bringing back again. 

And oft the presence of the night 
Wakes in my soul a sad delight, 
Routing the proud command of day 
Which kept my better sense at bay. 

'Tis then we feel how poor and weak 
The prizes are we anxious seek; 
How vain is all that time can give 
To nature's slaves condemned to live. 

Let night be then a solemn sign 
Of that condition to be mine, 
When, from this net of being freed, 
I taste at last Nirvana's mead. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. J- ^ 

PHILIP OF 
POKANOKET: 

e^ ,^ AN INDIAN DRAMA* 



This blank verse drama treats of the war waged by- 
King Philip in 1675-76 against the English colonists. 
The leading characters in that memorable contest are 
introduced, and made to live again in these pages. A 
careful study is undertaken of the Wampanoag chief- 
tain ; the tragic situations are utilized to bring out his 
human traits of gentleness and ferocity, his unbounded 
hopes, his bitter despair. For a moment the notes of 
war are hushed while the reader visits the Seconet 
village where dwells a peaceful tribe ; and between the 
rattle and report of musketry is heard the voice of 
affection and love. It is a varied and striking picture. 

12 mo., i36 pp., cloth, antique laid paper, gilt top, 
price $1.00. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

015 907 396 8 ' 



